Iraq opens its army to Hussein loyalists
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and his Shiite-dominated government reached out to former members of Saddam Hussein’s regime Saturday, inviting them to claim government pensions and rejoin the army in a gesture meant to calm the country’s sectarian fighting.
“The Iraqi army opens its doors to officers and soldiers from the former army who wish to serve the country,” Maliki said at a national reconciliation conference of politicians and sectarian leaders in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone.
Maliki has been under increasing U.S. pressure to improve security forces. But, exposing fissures that have plagued his struggling government as the country descended into civil war, several Shiite and Sunni Arab groups rejected the proposal, saying it would reward insurgents and stalwarts of Hussein’s regime.
After the Iraqi president was ousted in 2003, the interim administration led by L. Paul Bremer III disbanded the army in a purge of supporters of the Sunni-dominated regime. But the move has been criticized as one of the most critical missteps in the occupation, for sending disgruntled and jobless members of Hussein’s Baath Party into the ranks of the insurgents.
Government officials have long suggested embracing some former Baathists. Maliki said Saturday that the plan would not include those who had killed Iraqi civilians.
Supporters of the plan said it not only would dispel simmering Sunni unrest by giving the once-powerful sect a positive role in Iraqi society, but also would raise the skill level of the army, which has been criticized for its dependence on U.S. forces.
The Bush administration said it was encouraged by Maliki’s remarks, and urged the parties at the conference to “chart a course that brings stability and security to a unified and democratic Iraq,” National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
latimes
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